The Weight of a World

[pshaw_raven]

Did y'all know I've never read War & Peace?

I'm considering taking that on because the more I read of other people's responses to the book, the more I think it will be absolutely worth my while. I've come across a lot of blog posts and essays about Tolstoy over the past two years or so and it made me realize I've barely read anything of his writing. And it's not as if I shy away from books with difficult reputations.

On the one hand, it's a chonker. It's something like 1,300 pages. It's a doorstop. But then, I read long books exactly the same way that I read short ones, one page at a time. Some people take on a chapter a day, since there are 365 of them. I tend to do well with a minimum of ten pages a day goal, and by the time I'm "into" it, I don't bother keeping track because I know I'll finish.

It's also supposed to be dense and it has a lot of characters. So it sounds like LoTR. Especially some of the chapters where Tolkien is setting up the Elvish lore or earlier history of Middle Earth and you're reading along like, who the hell are these people. On my more recent read-throughs I know which bits I can skim for now, unless I decide to acquire some of the other Middle Earth books. I'm told War & Peace does something similar - as the story progresses, its focus narrows considerably, and you don't really have to give two fucks about a lot of the characters.

This is probably a lot weightier than anything I should be thinking about on vacation, but we tend to hide from the mid-afternoon heat, and I can't take naps, so I wind up reading, either online or a physical book. And yesterday I stumbled across yet another Tolstoy discussion so that's where this came from. I'll probably pick up a Penguin Deluxe from Bookshop.org.

Tomorrow's our last full day here and I'm already getting a bit Disney-ed out. But I'm also more accustomed to race weekends where the morning run is the major thing I do that day and the parks are just lagniappe. I'm also going to be in need of some intensive yoga sessions and maybe a water fast when I get home, I feel like hell, LOL. Today we managed to snag an early boarding group for Rise of the Resistance, and I think I'm going to pass on Slinky Dog Dash until next time. I'm almost at my fork limit for this trip so I'm trying to make things easier on myself. Yesterday I found out the hard way that there are two very different tracks for Big Thunder Mountain, and one of them is more intense than the other. Fox was like, "Oh yeah, I remember this track from when I was a kid. This one goes really high!" Me: "It ... what ..." *cue five uninterrupted minutes of screaming*

Comments

confessions!

[beachglass]

I haven't read it either :)

altho I've made several attempts, I have yet to pierce it's steel exterior.

that being said, anna karenina is one of my favorites. such an amazing book.

so, maybe one day...

[cdayzee]

I've never read it either. The sheer magnitude is intimidating. I know we're 'supposed' to read the classics & whatnot but meh - I'll remain a 'dumb American' :P

Damned if I didn't forget about Fork Theory! I had to look it up to re-familiarize myself from when you first posted about it. It's brilliant! But yeah, I can totally relate!

[rebeccarobota]

I had to read War and Peace in high school, and I remember it being quite engaging! It certainly lends itself to skimming - as I recall I skipped all the historical context chapters in which Tolstoy tells us what Napoleon is up to, etc.

[dorchadas]

I haven't read it either, but I remember my father mentioning how everyone had these long Russian names and characters would vanish for 200 pages and then show up again with no reminder of who they were and it became unbelievably confusing. It put me off reading it, to be honest, but maybe now I'd appreciate it.